At Draw the Lines, when we meet with our fellow Pennsylvanians, we like to ask two questions. First: “What concerns you about your world?” The conversation can go in many different directions: we’ve heard people talk about hot-button cultural issues like guns or immigration, more kitchen table fundamentals like school funding or healthcare, and every day challenges like potholes or snowplows.
We then ask “What’s a possible solution to fix it?” Our goal is to draw a connection between the concerns people have and where solutions can be found. Often, the answer is government, either local, state, or federal. And our republic has empowered voters to choose our leaders to run our government. In other words: who we vote for matters.
But far too seldom do we actually think about how our elections are run. What factors determine which candidates we can vote for? Why are so many people confused or frustrated by voting?
Enter Draw the Lines. It shows why one particular bug in our system, gerrymandering, is so frustrating that thousands of Pennsylvanians are already trying to fix it. (Gerrymandering is a result of politicians getting to choose their voters, instead of voters choosing their politicians.)
This project offers fun and interactive resources for you to be an informed voter and an engaged citizen.
Draw the Lines is uniquely suited to help you make a difference despite the uncertainty brought on by COVID-19 - activities are self-guided and can be done at home or virtually.
We’ve produced this set of resources to help. It includes:
- Draw Your Own Personal PA (completed examples here)
- Crack and Pack in a role-play as a political consultant
- Interactive Flashes of Insight
We've also engaged high school and college educators across PA to help them bring this to their class. They talk about what worked in our Teacher's Tale series.
A dedicated team of Draw the Lines staff is ready to help you get involved. Or you can take a look at our full Participate page. Questions or ideas? Connect with us at info@drawthelinespa.org.
Sincerely,
The Draw the Lines team